Email: caliticonica@gmail.com
Bio
Franco Castilla was born in Managua, Nicaragua. He has a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MFA from Ohio State University. He has exhibited in many Los Angeles venues including Elephant, LAST Projects and LACE. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
Artist Statement
In my work, I draw from personal memories, family narratives, and the history of Nicaragua to explore identity, dislocation and placelessness, and a process of assimilation and belonging. I consider the exertion of power by hegemonic forces made manifest diplomatically through imperial policies and accords and emphatically through violence and bloodshed. I examine the counter hegemonic responses ingrained in self-preservation with an urge for agency and autonomy enacted through violence, migration and assimilation, and an engagement with modalities of healing and self-regeneration.
In 1980, my family was displaced from Nicaragua due to a communist revolution sparked by the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional. The seeds of this rebellion were planted 150 years earlier at the beginnings of American imperialist interventions in Nicaragua. In 1821, Nicaragua gained its independence from Spain. For the United States, emboldened by the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which declared the eradication of European colonization and interference in the Americas, and the emergence in the 1840s of Manifest Destiny, the belief that it was their God given right to spread their superior culture across the continent, Nicaragua was of interest since it provided a land-and-water passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific to those drawn to California in search of gold, the possibility to build a transoceanic water canal, and the prospect to seize its territory to create an ally slave state. In 1855, the Tennessee-native filibuster William Walker invaded Nicaragua and by 1856 had declared himself president, legalized slavery, and designated English the official language. He was ousted and executed in 1860.
In the 1900s under President Theodore Roosevelt, U.S. foreign policy was driven once again with a disposition of superiority believing they needed to be the policemen and civilizers of foreign countries to be elevated by Americanizing them. In 1912, President Taft enacted “dollar diplomacy” by sending U.S. Marine troops to Nicaragua to temper insurrections and secure geopolitical benefits for American businesses and the U.S. federal government. In 1925, after the creation of the Nicaraguan National Guard, the U.S. Marines were finally removed but quickly brought back in 1926 to aid, once again, with political uprisings. From this milieu emerged Augusto César Sandino, a guerrilla leader who mounted a resistance campaign against U.S. intervention and Marine occupation. His crusade went on for 6 years with U.S. troops finally exiting in 1933. In 1934, Sandino met with President Sacasa to make concessions and restructure power between the presidency, Sandino’s troops, and the National Guard. As Sandino left the meeting, he was taken into custody and assassinated by the National Guard, under orders of its U.S. appointed leader Anastasio Somoza Garcia. In 1936, Somoza commanded a coup d’état and became the dictator of Nicaragua. This led to a forty-six year corrupt, repressive, and torturous regime with Somoza eventually being succeeded by his two sons. The United States, for its part, was practicing its “good neighbor” policy enacted by President Franklin Roosevelt and subsequently, during the Cold War, the Somoza brothers received economic and military support to suppress the spread of communism in Latin America. The Somoza dynasty remained in power until 1979 when it was overthrown by the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, named after Sandino. The F.S.L.N sought to end foreign interference and to implement democratic liberties, land redistribution, a national literacy campaign, and equality for women. My parents decided to flee the country promptly after realizing they planned to administrate a communist government.
I draw on my family’s dislocation and exclusion experienced upon arrival in the United States by examining and contemplating on loss and grieving, a struggle for agency, and a process of assimilation as naturalized American citizens. Moreover, the work gives expression to a personal evolvement towards renewal and healing using various modes of therapy, transcendental meditation, and an immersion in the fauna and flora of California to permeate in its palliative benefits.
Franco Castilla was born in Managua, Nicaragua. He has a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MFA from Ohio State University. He has exhibited in many Los Angeles venues including Elephant, LAST Projects and LACE. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
Artist Statement
In my work, I draw from personal memories, family narratives, and the history of Nicaragua to explore identity, dislocation and placelessness, and a process of assimilation and belonging. I consider the exertion of power by hegemonic forces made manifest diplomatically through imperial policies and accords and emphatically through violence and bloodshed. I examine the counter hegemonic responses ingrained in self-preservation with an urge for agency and autonomy enacted through violence, migration and assimilation, and an engagement with modalities of healing and self-regeneration.
In 1980, my family was displaced from Nicaragua due to a communist revolution sparked by the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional. The seeds of this rebellion were planted 150 years earlier at the beginnings of American imperialist interventions in Nicaragua. In 1821, Nicaragua gained its independence from Spain. For the United States, emboldened by the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which declared the eradication of European colonization and interference in the Americas, and the emergence in the 1840s of Manifest Destiny, the belief that it was their God given right to spread their superior culture across the continent, Nicaragua was of interest since it provided a land-and-water passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific to those drawn to California in search of gold, the possibility to build a transoceanic water canal, and the prospect to seize its territory to create an ally slave state. In 1855, the Tennessee-native filibuster William Walker invaded Nicaragua and by 1856 had declared himself president, legalized slavery, and designated English the official language. He was ousted and executed in 1860.
In the 1900s under President Theodore Roosevelt, U.S. foreign policy was driven once again with a disposition of superiority believing they needed to be the policemen and civilizers of foreign countries to be elevated by Americanizing them. In 1912, President Taft enacted “dollar diplomacy” by sending U.S. Marine troops to Nicaragua to temper insurrections and secure geopolitical benefits for American businesses and the U.S. federal government. In 1925, after the creation of the Nicaraguan National Guard, the U.S. Marines were finally removed but quickly brought back in 1926 to aid, once again, with political uprisings. From this milieu emerged Augusto César Sandino, a guerrilla leader who mounted a resistance campaign against U.S. intervention and Marine occupation. His crusade went on for 6 years with U.S. troops finally exiting in 1933. In 1934, Sandino met with President Sacasa to make concessions and restructure power between the presidency, Sandino’s troops, and the National Guard. As Sandino left the meeting, he was taken into custody and assassinated by the National Guard, under orders of its U.S. appointed leader Anastasio Somoza Garcia. In 1936, Somoza commanded a coup d’état and became the dictator of Nicaragua. This led to a forty-six year corrupt, repressive, and torturous regime with Somoza eventually being succeeded by his two sons. The United States, for its part, was practicing its “good neighbor” policy enacted by President Franklin Roosevelt and subsequently, during the Cold War, the Somoza brothers received economic and military support to suppress the spread of communism in Latin America. The Somoza dynasty remained in power until 1979 when it was overthrown by the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, named after Sandino. The F.S.L.N sought to end foreign interference and to implement democratic liberties, land redistribution, a national literacy campaign, and equality for women. My parents decided to flee the country promptly after realizing they planned to administrate a communist government.
I draw on my family’s dislocation and exclusion experienced upon arrival in the United States by examining and contemplating on loss and grieving, a struggle for agency, and a process of assimilation as naturalized American citizens. Moreover, the work gives expression to a personal evolvement towards renewal and healing using various modes of therapy, transcendental meditation, and an immersion in the fauna and flora of California to permeate in its palliative benefits.